The present invention relates to a holder for clamping a bed sheet to a mattress. More particularly to a holder used to clamp a fitted sheet over the corners of a mattress.
It is conventional to use a fitted sheet as the bottom sheet on a mattress and a top flat sheet which is folded around the corners at the foot of a mattress as a top sheet. The fitted bottom sheet is generally constructed to have four corner pockets which will fit snugly about the mattress corners and thereby hold the bottom sheet taut and securely to the mattress. One difficulty with a fitted sheet is when a mattress has a thickness greater than was intended for the fitted sheet the corners of fitted sheet will slide up and off the mattress. Another problem with a fitted sheet is when washed it tends to shrink until it no longer will stay in place even on a mattress with the desired dimensions. Other reasons for a fitted sheet to not have sufficient pocket sizes to fit the mattress on a bed could be due to the use of thick mattress pads such as sheepskin or so-called egg box mattress pads.
Devices for attaching and holding sheets over a mattress are known. It is known to attach a bed sheet to a spring mattress using elastic straps positioned under and across the corners of a mattress and attached to the sheet with garter clips or spring clamps.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,195,874 discloses elastic straps with spring clamps used to hold bedclothes to a mattress.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,862,541 discloses a device constructed with a inextensible strap provided with fasteners at each end. The strap is to be positioned under the mattress across the corner and the fasteners attached to the corners of the sheet. The fasteners disclosed by '541 are similar to the garter clip type in their operation. The stud which is separate from the necked plate member is used to push the sheet material through the slotted plate opening and slid along the slot to clamp the sheet.
The sheet holders of the prior art are difficult to use. The straps whether elastic or inextensible used across and under the corner of a mattress tends to move about when the bed is being made. When the sheet, whether it be a fitted type or a flat sheet, is positioned on the mattress then one must find and position the strap so the fasteners may be attached to the sheet. It is quite common as one end of the holding strap is attached to the sheet the other end is pulled out of position. Since a mattress is bulky and somewhat heavy it can be quite tiring to connect such straps.
Another problem with the known straps used to hold sheets in position on a mattress is the attaching means. Garter clips as pointed out by 4,862,541 are useful for only a single sheet thickness and cannot be used to hold both top and bottom sheets. Such clips further tend to turn loose and are difficult to attach to the sheet when the sheet is taut. Some of the garter clip problems are overcome by '541's heavier fasteners. The straps are still difficult to manage and the knobs may be misplaced.